The process could have been better, but the decisions made were sound. That's the message President Creighton gave at an April 24 meeting for campus media when asked about recent changes surrounding the chaplaincy. Because the report of the College Life and Advising Committee, which had been asked to make recommendations about the chaplaincy, arrived late in the semester, decisions had to be made more quickly than would have been ideal, Creighton said. However, the decision to create a dean of the chapel "gives it permanence in the administration" and restructuring allows the College to "address multiple religious constituencies without being locked into representing each religious group with one chaplain."
The Eliot House budget will remain the same next year, but it will be divided differently. "We needed John Grayson's creative imagination and leadership as dean to move the chaplaincy to a different plane and to start doing things the committee [on College Life and Advising] recommended," said Creighton.
Interim dean of the chapel Grayson has three goals he hopes to accomplish by the end of this semester. He wants to assemble the chaplaincy staff with whom he can work over the summer and through the next academic year. He aims to set up an advisory committee, including students, faculty, and staff, with whom to develop a vision of what the chaplaincy should become. And he wants to form the search committee that will determine the job description for the permanent dean of the chapel and review candidates for that position in the fall.
The Plan for MHC 2003 notes that "the Eliot House budget will be used to provide chaplains of varied backgrounds who can serve more of the needs of this spiritually diverse community than have been met in the past." Grayson has the responsibility of doing so with the current budget, which provides funding for one full-time-equivalent associate position and an administrative assistant position. His goal is to use available funds to provide coverage for Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant students, and to add coverage for Muslim students by fall 1997. In addition, Grayson will explore how to broaden the chapel's connection to religious communities outside the College's gates.
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